Revitalization of Rivers in India Draft Policy - Isha Guru Jaggi Vasudev

Revitalization of Rivers In India
Draft Policy Recommendation
• Identification and creation of model farms and farmers in each
Panchayat/block is a critical requirement for the farmer to transition
to the proposed agri-horti-forestry model.
• Facilitation of organic certification of produce through group
certification by third parties or through the Participatory Guarantee
System (PGS) is to be considered. This certification will play an
important role in securing higher price realization for the farmer.
The government will need to build the institutional capability to
support certification of organic farm produce.
• In an ideal scenario the government should facilitate the movement
from inorganic to organic directly. However, given the ground
realities, there may be a need to consider a phased approach of
moving from inorganic to non-pesticide management in the first
phase, and from there moving to using an organic package of
practices.
ORGANIZING SALE OF PRODUCE, SUPPORT WITH BRANDING,
AND ENSURING PRICE STABILITY
As a result of this large scale movement to production of fruit crops
on river banks there will be a substantial increase in the supply of fruits
compared to the current market size in India – and this will be especially
so if the movement is towards organic fruit crops as recommended by this
proposal. The key tasks required to make this happen are:
• Need institutionalization of the farmers via an appropriate
Farmer Producer Organization (FPO). One of the key challenges
of the farming community in India is its lack of organization. By
facilitating organization of farmers through FPOs, the government
can provide and implement schemes to these large groups
seamlessly. This also gives farmers the strength to participate in
markets, as their graded and aggregated produce will now become
substantial in quantity. The FPO with the aggregated produce, as an
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